Friday, August 28, 2015

I stayed down while Clyde, Molly and Connell took the sky ride up to the top. I wanted to get a good picture looking up at the mountain goats. This is about the best one, it looks like I'm out in the mountains and not at the zoo....natural is what I was looking for.

Molly and Connell on the the statues at the base of the mountain goats. This zoo has these statues all over the place (of different animals of course) and they are great for taking pictures with.

And here is the purpose for our visit today. They finally put the baby lions on display on Tuesday, and this was the first time we could get there to see them. There are two males and one female, and they are so cute!

We started here, but they weren't out yet, so we did the sky ride, looked at the giraffes, got a snack, and came back to the lions. And they were out! And playing! But because of the shade on the exhibit the playful pictures are blurred because it was dark and they were moving.

Mama was up on a ledge, so no pictures of her. Just these three "little" kittens. They are about two months old.

Connell on the mountain goat statue.

Molly on the climbing wall at the top of the skyride.

The Big Backyard exhibit from the skyride on the way down. We usually hit this exhibit everytime, but today it was lions, giraffes, lions, penguins, hippos, naked mole rats (and the orangutans had a 10 month old baby in their exhibit), back to the skyride, and then back to the lions, where the babies were all sleeping off their playtime from earlier.

Monday, May 11, 2015

Did you see all that crazy weather we had last week? It was like sun, rain, fog, hail, more rain, more hail, floods, tornado.....you name it we saw it. Then Saturday night, the snow started and kept on coming.

Sunday morning dawned overcast and foggy. There was a new eight inch coat of very heavy wet snow on the ground A really good day to stay inside in my pajamas. But that wasn't in the forecast.

Clyde starts out with "Are you going to get coffee this morning?"

"No, not in this mess."

"Well, I need coffee beans and tea, so I'm going," replied Clyde.

Oh, okay, I'll ride along, so I got dressed and Clyde started the truck and sort of cleaned off the snow.

Locked all the doors, shut the garage door and left. The road out of here was horribly potholed, slippery, and snow covered. Which was good because you couldn't see the potholes. I had no idea how Clyde could see the road, with that big pile of snow on the hood on his side. So I'm coaching him and telling him that he's too close to the side of the road, and he's going to slide off.

"I'm in the MIDDLE of the road, I can't slide off!" stated Clyde. Well, he didn't, and there was a snowplow clearing the paved road (pot holeless I might add).

Made it to the coffee store, got coffee and sat in there for a while. Then we left for home. We'd been gone about an hour. Made it back through the pot hole filled three miles of dirt road, pulled into the drive and pushed the button to open the garage door. Nothing. Pushed it again. Again nothing.

Me: "It's not working."
Clyde: "You have to push the button."
Me: "I AM!"
Clyde pushes the button on the opener. Nothing.
Me: "The power must me off."
Clyde: "Did you lock all the doors?"
Me: "Yes."
Clyde: "Do you have a key to the front door?"
Me: "Yes."
Clyde: Do you have it so we can get in?"
Me (digging through my bag): "I think so."
Clyde: "Well, do you have it?"
Me: "I'm looking! Uh, no, it's not here."
Clyde gets back in the truck and we both sit there looking at the closed garage door. Finally Clyde comes up with an idea--he is going to break one of the garage windows so we can get in.
Me: "NO!" I mean,, then we would have a window to fix.

We sit there for a couple more minutes, then Clyde thinks we can just start the generator. He gets out and goes to see if it will start. Next thing I know, he is back, looking at the garage door. Then he gets back into the truck.

Clyde: "Are there any jumper cables in the truck?"
Me: "No, why?"
Clyde: "I need them to start the generator."

We sit there for a couple more minutes. Then Clyde asks, "Now what?"
"We can go get breakfast, and then go get some jumper cables", I replied.

So off we went. We passed some electric company trucks (they were out in force because of all the power failures). No one there, and no phone number on the truck. Clyde gets out and asks the two guys in the driveway by the trucks, but they are not electric company employees. The told him, the the electric guys just parked the big truck and trailer with some kind of digger or something, unhooked the other trailer from the other truck and left.

So, back on our way over the snow covered. pot hole filled road.

Got breakfast at a coffee shop, went to Wal Mart and got new jumper cables, called the electric company and were told that it was going to be at least 3:55 before it was fixed. It was now 1:30. Went home, over the pot holes. The electric trucks were still parked there, no employees. Got home, Clyde pulled the generator out by the truck so we could start it. It wouldn't start. Tried several times.

Then.........I noticed that the outside lights had come back on, opened the garage door and went inside. This only took from 10am until 3pm.

And it started raining last Saturday afternoon, and we've had all these, including heavy rain, heavy hail, the snowplows have been out two days in a row removing hail from the roads, and now they will be out removing snow!

About Me

Welcome to my blog! I haven't blogged in a long time, but now I have a new grand baby and paintings and photos to show, so I will be posting more. I live on 7.5 acres of forest/pasture with 5 horses, 2 dogs, and 5 cats. I have 9 more horses on the "80" which is reall 40 acres and usually called the ranch about 4 miles from where I live. I'll be adding chickens and goats in the future.